


I'm In

by Guardian_of_Hope



Series: The Rainbow Brotherhood [19]
Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Romance, five things, ideas of questionable merit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 05:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6316885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_Hope/pseuds/Guardian_of_Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Antonio has ideas about how he and Jayden can spend their time after being Rangers. The ideas are of questionable merit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Boat

“So,” Antonio said as he dropped down beside Jayden on his couch, “I’ve been thinking.”

Jayden kissed his cheek, “That Justin’s job offer might be interesting?”

Antonio shrugged his shoulders, “Eh, maybe.  That wasn’t what I was thinking though.  I was thinking I want a boat.”

“A boat?”  Jayden asked, twisting on the couch so that he could see Antonio.  “What kind of boat?”

Antonio grinned at him, “Nothing fancy, but something I could take deep sea fishing.”

Jayden leaned over and rested his hand on Antonio’s arm, catching and holding his expression, “Antonio, please tell me this isn’t because you made me watch all the Jaws movies yesterday.”

Antonio laughed as he caught Jayden’s hand.  “Nothing like that, I‘ve been looking and I don’t need a boat like that.  Just something basic I can go fishing in or whatever.”

“Whatever huh?”  Jayden said as he tugged Antonio closer, “What qualifies as whatever?”

Antonio kissed him, “I have a few ideas.”

“So do I,” Jayden replied as he shifted and leaned back.


	2. Tattoo

Antonio was curled up over his sketch pad, so intent on his work that Jayden was able to walk around the couch and sit down in the recliner without Tony even looking up.  Jayden picked up the remote as the TV channel switched from one of those house renovation shows to a commercial.  It was standard background noise for Tony when he was alone.

Jayden called up the channel menu and started browsing the other channels.

“At least wait until this is over,” Antonio said.  “I want to know if they keep the house.”

“Sure,” Jayden said, “I’ll close this when the commercial ends.”

“Thank you,” Antonio said.

Jayden closed out the screen with a sigh and glanced at Antonio, “What are you drawing?”

“I’m thinking about getting a tattoo,” Antonio said, “just trying a design.”

“May I see?”  Jayden asked.

Antonio hesitated, then held up his sketchpad.  The page was dominated by two kanji, one for fire and one for light. Superimposed over fire was a calligraphy J and over light was an A.  “What do you think?”

“I think it’s amazing,” Jayden said, “isn’t it a bit complicated though?”

Antonio smiled as he resettled the pad in his lap, “Clearly you’ve never googled tattoos before.  Some of them are incredibly complex.”

Jayden nodded, “Maybe I haven’t.”  He hesitated a moment, “Look, Tony, I’m not going to tell you not to get a tattoo, it’s your choice.  I just want to make sure you really want a tattoo.  It is permanent.”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Antonio said, “and I’m still thinking about it.  I just had this idea and wanted to get it down.”

“Well,” Jayden said, “Let me know what you decide, and save that sketch.  I’d love to have a copy of it.”

“Yeah?” Antonio asked.

“Yeah,” Jayden said, “You’ve got talent you know.”

Antonio ducked his head and looked away.  “Show’s back on.”

Jayden smiled as he turned back to the TV, one day he’s get Antonio to take a compliment. It would just take time.


	3. Vacation

“We need a vacation,” Antonio announced as he wandered into the kitchen.

“A vacation?”  Jayden said, “It’s not like either of us really has jobs.”  He poked the hamburger meat browning on the stove with a spatula and nodded slightly at the way it looked.  “Besides, the island has everything we’d ever need.”

“Don’t you ever just want to go and see what’s there?  We could go to Disney, or Hawaii, or Japan,” Antonio hopped up on the end of the counter and waved his hands expansively, “We’ve got the whole world to explore.”

“But we don’t have to,” Jayden said.  “I’m sure that’s all nice, but I like it here.”

Antonio stared at him, head tilted slightly, “Do you not like traveling?  You come down to Angel Grove with me.”

Jayden put the spatula down and looked fully at Antonio, catching the hurt in his expression, “Oh Tony no.  It’s not that at all.”  He stepped up, sliding between Antonio’s legs and reaching up to catch Antonio’s face with his hands.  “I like going to Angel Grove.  I just, I don’t see why we need to leave.”  He kissed Antonio’s lips gently.

“You’ve never left on vacation have you?”  Antonio asked, studying Jayden’s eyes intently.

“No,” Jayden said.  “All the times I’ve left the Island, I did with you.”

Antonio kissed Jayden, “How about this, how about you let me plan a weeklong trip somewhere, just me and you.  If you end up hating it, then I’ll never ask again.  Just try it once?”

Jayden smiled, “Sure, Tony.  I’ll give it a shot.”

“Thank you,” Antonio said.  “Now, you finish making dinner.  I have a trip to plan.”

“Yeah?”  Jayden said.

“Yeah,” Antonio said, “it’s going to be perfect.”  He kissed Jayden again, one hand catching him around the neck and holding him there until the fire alarm went off.  They laughed.

“Oops,” Jayden said, kissing Antonio’s nose.

“Shut that off,” Antonio said.

“I love you,” Jayden said.

“Love you too,” Antonio said, he pushed Jayden back, “Seriously, let’s shut that thing up.”


	4. Drive

“So,” Antonio said.

“You start a lot of conversations that way,” Jayden said, glancing across the table at Antonio.

Antonio tapped his fork on his plate, then he glanced up at Jayden, “Do you actually not know how to drive, or do you just prefer not to?”

“What?”  Jayden asked.

Antonio held up his hands, “I’m just asking, I don’t mean to judge.”

“I’m not upset, just surprised,” Jayden said.  He shrugged, “Truth is, I can’t drive.  Ji tried to teach me when I was sixteen but it didn’t go so well.”

Antonio nodded, “Would you like to learn?”

Jayden sighed, “You know, you don’t have to cram everything I didn’t get to learn or experience in a single year, Tony.”

Antonio frowned, “I’m not- is that what you think?  Jay- I just…”

Jayden put his fork down and reached over to rest his hand on Antonio’s arm, “Hey, Tony, I’m not saying I don’t like your ideas, okay.  It’s just that I kind of like it when we aren’t rushing to cram something else into a week.  I’m kind of a homebody over here, you know that.”

Antonio put his fork down and covered Jayden’s hand with his own, “I’m not trying to cram things, it’s just,” Antonio hesitated, “sometimes it makes me so mad.  We both lost out, and it wasn’t our fault.  Some of this, some of it’s for me too.”

Jayden squeezed Antonio’s arm, “And that makes me mad too.  You know that right?   I just don’t think we need to cram all the stuff we’ve missed into a single year.  We’ve got years to experience all of this.  Now, on the subject of driving, I think I would like another shot at learning.”

“We’ll have to get you a learner’s permit,” Antonio said, grinning at him as he picked up his fork.  “Can’t have the Red and Gold Samurai Rangers get a ticket for driving without a license.”

“We can’t have that at all,” Jayden agreed leaning back and picking up his own fork.


	5. Reunion

It was a lovely, quiet morning until Antonio slammed into Shiba House.  “We should have been invited,” Antonio said, waving his phone at Mikayla.  “We’re Rangers, we’re done fighting, and we should be there!  This is- this is bullshit.”

“Invited to what?”  Mikayla asked, glancing at Jayden and Mia before taking the phone from Antonio.

“Annual Ranger Reunion,” Antonio said, “it’s practically the only day we get to meet up with all the other Rangers.  Justin got an invite, and he’s never gone to those things.”

“Maybe there was a mistake,” Mia offered tentatively, glancing at Mikayla and Jayden then back to Antonio.

“Jungle Fury got their invites before they defeated Dai Shi,” Antonio said.  He pivoted away, “This is because of me.  They’re punishing you because of me.”

“How do you figure that?”  Jayden asked sharply.

“Because I think Dad and Uncle Jason are being assholes to Justin about Zhane,” Antonio said, “and I told them that.”

“Did you use that language?”  Mikayla asked.

“Oh no,” Antonio said, “I used worse.”

“And on that note,” Jayden said, “Antonio take a walk with me.  Mia, call, uh, Dana?  Call her and see what’s going on.”  He stood up and slung his arm around Antonio’s shoulders and steered him away from the dining room.

“This isn’t fair,” Antonio said as he let Jayden move him towards the back garden.

“I’m sure it’s just a mistake,” Jayden said, he shifted his arm until he was rubbing Antonio’s back in calming circles.  “We’ll get this sorted.”

Antonio huffed and his shoulders slumped, “I was looking forward to you guys meeting everyone too.”

“Yeah?”  Jayden said.

“Yeah,” Antonio said.  He perked up, “If nothing else, we could always crash the reunion.”

“Crash it?”  Jayden said, “Wouldn’t there be security?”

“Well, we’re Rangers,” Antonio said, “They wouldn’t deny us entry.”

Jayden pulled Antonio into a hug, “Whatever happened, we’ll get it straightened out, Tony.”

Antonio sighed and returned the hug, “I hope so.”

“I know so,” Jayden said.  He kissed Antonio gently, “Trust me?”

“Always.”


	6. Jayden

“So,” Jayden said as they studied the crowd of Rangers, “I had an idea.”

“I thought ideas weren’t allowed,” Antonio said, glancing over at Jayden.

“No, _you_ aren’t allowed to have ideas,” Jayden said.  “Given how badly yours turned out to be.”

“They weren’t so bad,” Antonio said, “You like the boat.”

Jayden coughed, “We ran out of gas the first time we went out and the Coast Guard had to rescue us.”

“The tattoo is beautiful.”  Antonio said.

“You got a rash from the lotion,” Jayden said, “I had to take you to the hospital.”

“The vacation,” Antonio said.

“I got food poisoning and you lost your luggage,” Jayden said.

“But you got your license,” Antonio said.

“I wrecked your car the next day,” Jayden said, “and I’m never driving again.”

“Really, they were just bad experiences,” Antonio said.

“I know,” Jayden said.  “But I told you, you need to take some time before we try one of your ideas.  Now, do you want to hear about mine?”

“Okay,” Antonio said.

Jayden took Antonio’s hand and drew him through the crowd of Rangers.  He nodded slightly when Adam looked at him, and he could see Mia herding Kevin and Emily through the crowd.  Others were working their way in the same direction, and Jayden knew that they’d be in place before him and Antonio.  He also pretended that he didn’t see Madison following them with her camera, and from the way Antonio kept aborting a look over his shoulder, Jayden knew his boyfriend was also aware of her.   “For the record, I asked them not to send us invites to the reunion.  I had a slightly different plan for this weekend.  It’s okay, we can do it in a few weeks, since you were so upset about not being here.”

“Jayden,” Antonio said.

“Don’t worry,” Jayden said, smiling at his boyfriend, “I just wanted to surprise you.  I can do that here just as well as anywhere else.”  He drew Antonio into the center of the reunion, where the pile of wood awaited sundown, when it would be lit for a bonfire.  “In fact, I think this is a better place than what I had planned.”

“Jayden,” Antonio said.

“Antonio,” Jayden said.  He put his hands on Antonio’s shoulders and shifted him slightly, “Stay right there for a moment.”

“Jayden,” Antonio said, and there was a thickness to his voice.

“Antonio,” Jayden said, “you have been a big part of my life, even when you weren’t right there.  You stood up for me against bullies, you kept my biggest secrets, and when I really needed you, you were there.  I love you.”  He knelt down, and pulled the small red box from his pocket, “And I don’t want you to go anywhere.  Will you marry me?”

Antonio swallowed, “This is, without a doubt, the stupidest plan you’ve ever had.”  He gripped Jayden’s arm and pulled him to his feet.  “Of course I’m in.”


End file.
